Gettin' Geeky with Joshua Gomez of "Chuck"

Gettin' Geeky with Joshua Gomez of "Chuck"

Forget about Chuck and Larry — one of this year's greatest duos is Chuck and Morgan, the two geeky Nerd Herd employees on NBC's spy dramedy "Chuck." At the TCA press tour on Tuesday, I chatted with Joshua Gomez, who plays Chuck's sidekick Morgan, about the show's inherent nerdiness and the appeal of going on a secret mission.

Between your character and Chuck's, who's the bigger nerd? Who thinks he's cooler?
I definitely think I'm cooler. Chuck would probably even say he's the bigger nerd, you know, like he would admit it. Morgan is sort of the — you know, he's not as smart as Chuck. So he's a little more of the instigator, the wise guy. But I don't think I'm quite the geek and full-on nerd that he is. Getting there, maybe.

Is there a sense that you guys are doing this show that people like you would watch?
That's an interesting dynamic through all of us, except maybe for Yvonne (Strzechowski) and Sarah (Lancaster) — oh, the beautiful ones. We all grew up with very similar experiences, you know, not the high school football star. I grew up playing video games and on early commodore 64s and sort of "what is this Internet thing I've heard about?" That's what's cool about Chuck. He's different than Spider Man. He cannot lift up a car, and he can't do superhero things. He's still just Chuck the nerd who just happens to be really, really important.

Do you end up finding out about Chuck's new spy abilities?
At this moment, I think he wants to keep both worlds separate. Chuck wants to keep his family and his friends safe, so in order to do that they mustn't find out. I would assume at some point one of us would find out, maybe — me being the snoopy best friend, I would hopefully get a whiff of what's going on. I don't know at this point, but I hope so. ... [Maybe then] I'd get to tag along on a secret mission — maybe just, like, carry stuff.